Instant (almost) SharePoint 2013 Farm in Azure!

 

Microsoft Azure has had a pre-configured SharePoint 2013 image for quite a while, but you still had to create a SQL Server image to make it work and then run the SharePoint wizard to create the farm. Now they have a wizard approach to quickly create a ready to use three server basic farm or a nine server high-availability farm. Just click, click, click, wait a while and start playing with SharePoint! Just the thing for evaluations, demos and development.

The three server farm includes a SQL server, a DC server and a SharePoint server. The high-availability farm includes two DC servers, three SQL server servers, two application servers and two SharePoint web servers. (This one should drain your Azure budget! Remember to turn these off when not in use.)

Details on both configurations can be found here: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/virtual-machines-sharepoint-farm-config-azure-preview/

Here's the steps to create your Azure SharePoint 2013 farm: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/articles/virtual-machines-sharepoint-farm-azure-preview/

 

A few observations:

• SharePoint Version: 15.0.4571.1502  (Service Pack 1 (revised))
• License: SharePoint Server Trial with Enterprise Client Access License
• An initial web application and site collection have been created, but you will be asked to pick the template for the top level site on the first visit.
• None of the services applications have been installed. User Profiles, Search, etc.
• The VMs are available via Remote Desktop.
• SharePoint is accessible from the web, so you can test from your local PC.
• Outgoing and incoming email has not been configured.
• Does not include Office Web Apps server.

 

Things you will need to do to have a complete SharePoint:

• Configure the services
• Configure email options
• Add one more server VM for Office Web apps

 

Now all we need is a volunteer to create the PowerShell scripts to do the final work for us!

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SharePoint Dev Class 20488 in Two Weeks

 

I'll be presenting the 20488 Developing Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 Core Solutions class in two weeks, actually a week and a half (time flies!). February 16th, 2015. We've set up this class for both local and remote students. Online students will be able to view the class and have remote access to the lab computers.

Just as a little incentive, when you register enter my code of "TTN50" and get a $50 discount on the class.

Details here: http://www.maxtrain.com/Classes/ClassInfo.aspx?Id=101693

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MS-20488 Developing Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013 Core Solutions

In this 5 day instructor-led course, students learn core skills that are common to almost all SharePoint development activities. These include working with the server-side and client-side object models, developing and deploying features, solutions, and apps, managing identity and permissions, querying and updating list data, managing taxonomy, using workflow to manage business processes, and customizing the user interface.

At Course Completion

After completing this course, students will be able to:

• Design and manage features and solutions.
• Develop code for custom server-side components.
• Manage and customize authentication and authorization.
• Create custom sites and lists and manage the site lifecycle.
• Explain the capabilities and design choices for SharePoint apps.
• Use the client-side object model and the REST API.
• Develop provider-hosted and auto-hosted SharePoint apps.
• Distribute and deploy SharePoint apps.
• Create custom workflows to automate business processes.
• Use fields and content types to manage taxonomy.
• Customize the appearance and behavior of user interface elements.
• Customize navigation and site branding.

More details at http://www.maxtrain.com/Classes/ClassInfo.aspx?Id=101693

 

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A note to self-published book authors…

 

Actually a few notes…

 

I found two interesting SharePoint 2013 search books at Amazon and ordered them. I just received them… and I'm going to return both of them. This will be the first time I have ever returned a printed book!

 

Self-publishing is easy, fun and very rewarding. But…

Note 1: All printed technology books must have an index! Indexes are easy to create in Microsoft Word. You can either create a busy looking, but not too useful, index using the automatic features, or invest a couple hours and manually create a very useful one. In any case be forewarned, I do not buy technical books that do not have an index!

Note 2: Do not tell me in the book's intro that all of the content in the book is straight from your blog articles. Especially don't tell me that I could have gotten it all for free from the blog. (Boy, do I feel dumb paying for that book.) Don't just copy your blog articles and call it a book. Books that build on your blog articles can really be useful. Creating the book is your opportunity to expand on the topic and rewrite the quickly written text into nice complete articles. Fix up the screen captures. Fill in the gaps. Rewrite the hastefully written text. You know… create what you would have done in the blog if you had time to do it right the first time.

Note 3: Do not fill the pages with giant screen captures so there's an average of one screen capture and only one or two sentences per page. That works for a kid's picture book, but does not deliver much value as a technical book. In any case, please, please size and crop the screen captures so they are always readable and to the point.

Note 4: Pay somebody, anybody, to proofread the book. They don't have to know the technology. They just have to know some basic English and know enough to ask if all the code really should be underlined! If you want to really do it right, find someone who has heard of the Chicago Manual of Style, At a minimum buy yourself a copy of the Microsoft Manual of Style, and give a copy to your proofreader.

Note 5: Look at some of the tech books from the big publishers. I mean, open them, look at the details, note what is there and what is not. Note the use of "front matter". Note that page numbers go on the outside edges of pages, not in the gutter. Note the use of font size and the limited use of bold and italics.

 

</rant>

 

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PowerShell Sorting Tip for Enumerations

 

Do you ever have a PowerShell script that just won't sort right?

The problem? PowerShell makes assumptions, and not always the ones you would make. For example let's get a list of SharePoint lists and sort them by their BaseTemplate property:

    $mtg = Get-SPWeb http://maxsp2013wfe/sites/Meetings
    $mtg.Lists | Sort BaseTemplate | Select BaseTemplate, Title

Is the result you would expect?

Not what I first expected… but there's a hint hiding there though… Why is the BaseTemplate column right aligned as if was numeric?

If we take the above script and pipe it to Get-Member we find that BaseTemplate is not a string! It's an object of some kind. It's an SPListTemplateType object!

So let's see what that is… Doing a Bing on Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListTemplateType reveals that it is an enumeration, which internally is a number. If you look at the list in the MSDN article you will see both the text and numeric values of the base types.

What we need is the display text for the enumeration, and we can get that by using the ToString() method. As that would then be an expression, we need to add the annoying curly brackets and the $_. notation.

    $mtg.Lists | Sort { $_.BaseTemplate.ToString() } | Select BaseTemplate, Title

And now we get:

And that's more like it! (except for the right align stuff that going on)

Convert the column in the Select to a string and all's well!

    $mtg.Lists | Sort {$_.BaseTemplate.ToString()} | Select {$_.BaseTemplate.ToString()}, Title

 

So what were the PowerShell assumptions?

1. To display the text value of the enumeration, and align it as a number.
2. To sort on the numeric value of the enumeration.

(And you know what "assume" does, right?) 

 

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SharePoint Auditing and Site Content Administration using PowerShell

 

If you have attended one of my SharePoint Saturday PowerShell presentations or read my PowerShell series at SharePoint Pro magazine, then you know a bit about what's possible with PowerShell. This Friday. January, 30th, I will be delivering one of the more fun classes I do: "SharePoint 2010 and 2013 Auditing and Site Content Administration using PowerShell". If you are a SharePoint administrator and need to "find and inventory stuff" in SharePoint then you need this class! Whatever is hiding in SharePoint is visible to the PowerShell user, if you know where to look.

Class details are here: http://www.maxtrain.com/Classes/ClassInfo.aspx?Id=119394
You can join us at MAX Technical Training in Cincinnati or attend remotely from your office or home.

This class is available world wide though Microsoft training partners
and the Microsoft Courseware library. Just ask for course 55095.

 

MS-55095 SharePoint 2010 and 2013 Auditing and Site Content Administration using PowerShell

This one day instructor-led class is designed for SharePoint 2010 and 2013 server administrators and auditors who need to query just about anything in SharePoint. The class handout is effectively a take home cheat sheet with over 175 PowerShell scripts plus the general patterns to create your own scripts. These scripts cover:

• getting lists / inventories of servers, services web applications, sites, webs, lists, libraries, items, fields, content types, users and much more
• finding lists by template type, content type and types of content
• finding files by user, content type, file extension, checked out status, size and age
• finding inactive sites
• finding and changing SharePoint Designer settings and finding and resetting customized pages
• inventorying and managing features
• deleting and recycling files and list items
• inventorying users and user permissions and finding out “who can access what”
• creating sites, lists and libraries
• uploading and downloading files
• general tips for counting, reformatting and exporting results;
• drilling up and down the SharePoint object model
• and much more…

 

Prerequisites: You should have good SharePoint skills as and end user and administrator along with some practical experience with PowerShell.

 

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Cincinnati SharePoint User Group Remote Access Tonight

 

Go here after 4:00 PM EST for login instructions: www.CincinnatiSPUG.org

Meeting will start at 6:00 for food, social and networking. Presentation will start at 6:30 PM EST.

Attending physically or remotely? Register here and let us know! http://www.meetup.com/TechLife-Cincinnati/events/219938769/

Support your local user group!

(yah, a movie title rip off…)

Your local IT user groups… one of the few really useful free things in life. Attend, network, learn and share!

For a list of Cincinnati area user groups see here:
http://www.maxtrain.com/UserGroups.aspx

For a list of upcoming user group events see here:
http://www.meetup.com/TechLife-Cincinnati/

And don't forget tonight's Cincinnati SharePoint user group meeting!
http://www.meetup.com/TechLife-Cincinnati/events/219938769/

A list of SharePoint User Groups:
http://www.sharepointfest.com/portal/index.php/2012-04-13-17-00-56/sharepoint-user-groups/north-america/united-states

A list of .Net User Groups:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/dotnet/p/dotnetusergroups.aspx

A large list of user groups / communities:
https://www.technicalcommunity.com/CommunityDirectory.aspx

Benefits of user groups:

• Networking! Bring your business cards, questions and ideas to the meeting!
• Networking!  Looking for a job? Looking for an new employee?
• Free consulting! Really! Many of the user group attendees work for consulting firms. Ask away!
• Free food! Most user groups supply pizza or sandwiches at the meeting.
• Discounts! User groups have access to book, training and other discounts. If you don't see them listed on the user group's web sites, then ask.
• Learn! Every session will present something new. New products, new ideas, new twists on old ideas or just a new way to think about or use the technology.
• Stay up to date… about bugs, fixes, tricks, events, and stuff you would have never even thought about.
• Get a raise! (Maybe… just present the next great idea at work that your stole from the user group meeting.)
• Free stuff! Most user groups get lots of books, gadgets and toys from the sponsors that they pass out at the meetings.

 

Reasons not to attend:

• There's something better on TV tonight, I don't have a DVR, and it will really improve my life!
• Don't like the topics. Well… recommend some new topics. We will find the speakers! (Or volunteer to speak!)
• Don't like free food, books, toys and other goodies…
• Don't need to network! I already know everything and could not be any better at my job! (Well then you should come to the meetings and share!)
• Boss won't let me go.  Get a better boss! (Unless we are speaking about your better half…) Or just tell your boss that they usually charge $500 for this kind of event, but you know someone and can get the training, network and consulting for free.

 

What you can do…

• Attend and share! I guarantee that you know something about the technology that no one else at the meeting does.
• Volunteer. There's always something that needs to be done.
• Get your company to sponsor a meeting! It will be some of the least expensive promotion they do all year.
• Speak! We always need speakers. Not comfortable speaking? Ask about 5-15 minute lightning rounds. Little or no prep needed. Just share something cool that you have done, or something interesting you have just figured out. (Adding "speaker" to your resume is pretty cool too!)
• Promote the meetings! Coworkers, Twitter, Blogs, students… get the word out!
• Thank the sponsors!  (and consider buying their products)
• Thank the volunteers!  (and consider buying them a cold beverage!)
• Thank the speakers!  (and consider buying their services, their books… or a cold beverage!)

 

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Cincinnati SharePoint User Group Meeting!

Register here: http://www.meetup.com/TechLife-Cincinnati/events/219938769/

User group site: http://www.CincinnatiSPUG.org

Thursday, January 22, 2015

6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

Speaker: Justin Kobel   

Title:   Branding SharePoint 2013 without breaking everything

SharePoint 2013 (and SharePoint Online) have given us a lot of different tools to offer a better design experience to our users; but it’s  never as easy as the marketing materials make it out to be.  In this session we’ll look at a couple of different methods to apply branding to SharePoint, while also making sure that you do not break existing SharePoint Functionality.

Topics:

• Branding the easy way  (SharePoint themes and Office 365 themes)
• Design Manager
• Minimal Download Strategy (and why you will hate it)
• Deploying via WSP
• Deploying via the App Model

We will try to have remote access available. Check the web site Thursday afternoon for details. http://www.CincinnatiSPUG.org

 

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How do you spell SharePoint?

 

Ok, this is useless trivia… In the list of SharePoint 2013 Search Result Types (Settings, Site Settings, Search section, Result Types) it looks like someone at Microsoft is not sure how to spell SharePoint! At least they did not spell it SharePint!

Oh wait… they made up for it in the next word. Everywhere in TechNet microblog has a lowercase "b"!

So, for accuracy, in my courseware should I use "Sharepoint MicroBlog", "SharePoint MicroBlog" or "SharePoint Microblog"?   Decisions, decisions, decisions… Oh the life of a tech writer…

 

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Still exam procrastinating? Second Shot is back!

 

Time for New Year's resolutions? Or just finish some of last years…

Take any Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) exam between January 5, 2015, and May 31, 2015. If you don't pass, get a free retake!

All of the Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate (MCSA), Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert (MCSE), Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD), and Microsoft Specialist certification exams are eligible. Microsoft Technology Associate (MTA) exams and Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) exams do not qualify for this promotion.

Details here: https://www.microsoft.com/learning/en-us/second-shot.aspx

 

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